If good answers have been provided on this same question before, I would be happy to be linked to them.
/u/zwirlo and /u/commiespaceinvader have previously answered Pop history often presents Yugoslavia as a "nationalist time bomb" destined to blow, held together only by the force of strongman President Tito. But he died in 1980 and the first Yugoslav war began in 1991. What was really going on?
More answers remain to be written.